Oilers lose, Ford's epic rant, Carney's power grab and making up with India...

Hockey and politics can be powerful together in Canada, but not this year.

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The Edmonton Oilers lost last night dashing Canadian hopes of the Stanley Cup coming home. I won’t trash talk the players, they are great, so many fantastic players on the Oilers’ roster, but Florida simply played better the last few games.

In Ottawa, you just know that there were hopes in Mark Carney’s PMO that the Oilers would win.

That’s not just because Carney is an Oilers fan, but also because every new government hopes they can claim they were in office when the cup returned to Canada. After Trudeau won in 2015, their hopes were dashed early because there weren’t any Canadian teams in the running.

But back in 2006, the Harper Conservatives were absolutely giddy at the thought that the Oilers could win the cup, the first Canadian team to do so since 1993 when the Montreal Canadiens won when the Conservatives were last in power.

Of course, the Oilers lost in seven games that year to the Carolina Hurricanes.

Don’t laugh at this and think politicians won’t use this kind of gimmick. Former Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall liked to remind audiences that the Roughriders didn’t win the Grey Cup when the NDP was in power, but did win in 2007 after his Saskatchewan Party took power.

I bring back this clip from last August of Florida Governor Ron DeSantis making a similar comparison to our then PM Justin Trudeau. Now though, DeSantis gets to claim four cups.

Carney’s massive power grab...

I was writing about Bills C-2 and C-5 for the Toronto Sun. Both bills have some good intentions and fix problems that need fixing, but they also include massive government power grabs that are open for abuse.

I don’t see how either bill can pass in its current form, but PM Carney wants them rushed through before Friday. That doesn’t leave much time for debate or committee work where mistakes are fixed or bills are amended.

Should the federal cabinet be able to declare that a project they pick as being in the national interest isn’t subject to any Canadian laws? Absolutely not, but C-5 would give them that power.

Should police or federal agents be able to scoop up all your data from your mobile or internet data without a search warrant? Of course not, but C-2 would allow this to happen in spite of a Supreme Court ruling calling such measures unconstitutional.

Watch to see if the bills are fixed and if MPs sit later than Friday to do it.

Doug Ford’s epic rant on judges, bail and criminals...

Ontario’s Premier let loose on one of his favourite topics on Tuesday, how weak our justice system is.

It was all prompted by the fact that thugs showed up in the middle of the night to try and steal vehicles from his driveway not knowing there are cops stationed there around the clock. He also talked about drug dealers and violent thugs getting bail and called for Castle Laws in Canada.

It’s all worth the watch.

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The saga of John Tory...

Yesterday, I published a column explaining why I don’t think John Tory should run for mayor of Toronto again. Yes, Olivia Chow needs to be replaced, but Tory isn’t the man to do it and in fact was there as many of Toronto’s major problems started.

I didn’t get the pushback I was expecting from certain quarters, in fact there was no pushback.

Instead, I heard from people who have backed and worked with Tory over the years agreeing with me that he shouldn’t be running. I heard from political and business leaders that it is time for someone else to take over.

Who that will be remains up in the air with a long list of potential candidates including Ana Bailão, Anthony Furey, Brad Bradford, and Marco Mendicino.

My view is a wide field only helps Chow stay in office, so hopefully there is one solid candidate people can rally around by Summer 2026. As a side note, the Toronto Star has a piece on the mayor’s race today and with two reporters on the story, provided less information than I get on my own.

Making peace with India...

Canada never should have been in the diplomatic war with India but our former PM with his penchant for costume changes, Bollywood dancing and theatrics couldn’t help himself. Justin Trudeau accused India of murdering a Canadian citizen on Canadian soil in September 2023 but never made any evidence public.

He had also spent years playing footsie with the Khalistani separatist movement which wants a breakaway Sikh homeland in India’s Punjab region.

Khalistan has more support in Canada than in India and the movement has a checkered past that includes violence. and terrorism. Next week marks the 40th anniversary of the Air India bombing which killed 329 people including 268 Canadians.

Newly minted PM Mark Carney invited India’s PM Narendra Modi to the G7 in an attempt to reset relations. It was the right move, now let’s see how it all plays out.

What to read...

Speaking of ridiculous judges, Michele Mandel has the story of the woman who helped a drug dealing, gun toting man escape from the scene of a deadly shooting and she got house arrest. To add insult to injury, her house arrest says she can hit the gym because GoodLife is one of the places she’s allowed to go under her “sentence.”

Tristin Hopper is looking at the polling numbers for Pierre Poilievre and they don’t look good. In fact, he says they are the lowest since Poilievre became leader.

Over at the New York Post, via The Free Press, Andrew Roberts is making an argument for Donald Trump to help Israel defeat the Islamic Republic of Iran for once and for all. He describes how this is Trump’s Churchillian moment, and he faces a difficult decision. This is a major debate in the United States and is splintering both the Republican/MAGA side as well as the Democrats.